The Lion - Moderator Application

[The Lion]

Ok. I heard a while ago you were applying to become a moderator, your answers seems mostly fine. but the fact your already quitted the staff before and your drama on SCP13 kinda worries me, Also notes, while being short, it's very concerning as we staff beside the memes and the jokes we are to keep professionalism in line, and a 7 day ban for +18 content, you really pushed the line.

I must say i saw the Drama of SCP13 very closely and back on the day, i stopped playing CM to play SCP13, must say, i was very happy as a big fan of the SCP archives and foundation and i got sad of seeing the whole project sink.

Although i see you as a Excelent player (saw some of your rounds as CMP and XO), i am Unsure if you are Staff material.



Any veteran on CM has over hundred hours.

For now i am remaning on neutral but leaning towards a -1 May change it on future if see more answers.

Hiya.

I understand your hesitation, especially regarding the SCP13 thing. I did address this in a post a page or so back.

But to TL;DR it: Yeah, I made mistakes. I was under immense pressure to get a lot of things done, and I guess the project was unorganized the moment it started, which was thanks to me in part. As far as SCP13's failure go, I bear the full responsibility for that, nobody else.

As for the notes:

That too I addressed in a different post. As you'll have seen, it's just one isolated incident and doesn't provide a track record of similar behavior.


I simply wanted to clarify these things up, not intending for you to change your opinion on the application as a whole.

[Hunk1]

Hiya.

I understand your hesitation, especially regarding the SCP13 thing. I did address this in a post a page or so back.

But to TL;DR it: Yeah, I made mistakes. I was under immense pressure to get a lot of things done, and I guess the project was unorganized the moment it started, which was thanks to me in part. As far as SCP13's failure go, I bear the full responsibility for that, nobody else.

As for the notes:

That too I addressed in a different post. As you'll have seen, it's just one isolated incident and doesn't provide a track record of similar behavior.


I simply wanted to clarify these things up, not intending for you to change your opinion on the application as a whole.

Just to make sure, i am neutral regarding your notes, not the drama.

[starmute]

Drama from several years ago doesn't really affect my opinion on this one. I'd like to see soldiers reply but I'm remaining neutral till then.

[ThesoldierLLJK]

Your answers except the synth one were fine, and I liked how you said you would just see what the admin was doing (FYI admins can join the round one time as a xeno or survivor as long as they dont unbalance things)

SCP drama aside, I've heard from other players who want to dwell in the past, but I'll just say if you get a shot, leave drama at the door.

I'd say this application could go for a trial.

[The Lion]

Your answers except the synth one were fine, and I liked how you said you would just see what the admin was doing (FYI admins can join the round one time as a xeno or survivor as long as they dont unbalance things)

SCP drama aside, I've heard from other players who want to dwell in the past, but I'll just say if you get a shot, leave drama at the door.

I'd say this application could go for a trial.

I'm not the kind of person that likes to live on the drama anyway. Applying here is a chance for me to actually leave it behind, as far as personal motivations go.

Thank you for your consideration!

[starmute]

I looked over your responses and they are alright. They aren't outstanding but since soldier seems to think you can cut the mustard I will give a tentative +1. Soldier is one of the nicer people here, and if he will cosign someone I typically take a double take (not always however). Your drama was 2 years ago (so it seems) so I'm not going to give you a negative on basis of things that happened years ago.

[The Lion]

I looked over your responses and they are alright. They aren't outstanding but since soldier seems to think you can cut the mustard I will give a tentative +1. Soldier is one of the nicer people here, and if he will cosign someone I typically take a double take (not always however). Your drama was 2 years ago (so it seems) so I'm not going to give you a negative on basis of things that happened years ago.

Granted what was shown to be a Reddit excerpt was over two years ago.

SCP13 drama was ended this year February, when I shut it down.

Though I should say, anyone can cherrypick facts to make a case, which I feel was done in this case. SCP13 wasn't close to what CM is or embodies, and I can't even remember two years ago.

Frankly, I don't feel I'm cut out to be a Host in SS13 anymore, after SCP13's failure. But I have full confidence I can be a good moderator.

[Anaha]

Right, so, at first, I wasn't going to comment on this. I believe that people can improve and that sometimes we make mistakes, but what I've seen of Lion's behaviour, he is not that type of person. I don't have mountains of evidence and proof, so what I'm saying, you're going to have to take at faith. I know that's something big for me to ask, but I swear that the following paragraphs are the absolute truth, and nothing but that. Whatever that's worth, let's get started on my concerns here and what I have to say about this application in particular.

The Lion has shown himself as a generally unsympathetic character. I know most people are talking about the whole SCP-13 drama as if it were years ago rather than months ago. I know that a few people here aren't going to be aware of Lion's history, and a few have admitted that already. In his time as a host for SCP-13, Lion made a number of mistakes ranging from minor to devastating, which shifted the way in which the reputation of the server was perceived and eventually leading to the downfall of it due to his unadulterated hubris and arrogance. Put simply, Lion is a narcissist. Explored further, this is a pattern of abusive behaviours which range from sexually threatening comments to exerting the power and influence he had over others to intimidate and threaten them. This ranged from petty things like denying them access to the server/discord up to threatening kids (14 year olds and such) with egregious claims that he would be employing lawyers for absurd things.

He repeatedly stifled communications between members of staff and the general community and drove a number of staff to even turn against him because of his game-playing. One of his first real assignments once the server was "up" was to give new meaning to the word nepotism. His ex-boyfriend/current lover became a Co-Host and generally bumbled around disrupting busy folks who had coding to do and doing some cringeworthy crap that soured the general public against him. It was up to a few members of the staff team to actually hold the project together while he inputted his own requests, like making "LION BARS" for dispensers or a "LION STATUE" which needed to be sprited and implemented in. These received a lot of backlash. There is a lot more to unpack here, but it devolves into petty insults from me at a certain point. Many of the staff team ghosted for a period of time before vanishing, some quit in pure frustration and others kicked off and just quit. He wanted to micromanage EVERYTHING, every single design choice, and had unrealistic ideas about progress and development, up until the point where he had to be confronted and told that he was pushing too hard and in the wrong direction.

Lion eventually tainted the perception of the server from other servers by beginning to make threats and grave insults against hosts of other servers, went about pretty much everything in an unprofessional manner and even resorted to doing something as petty as "spying" by encouraging his team to find positions in other servers and gather information from them. His communication with these other hosts was often toxic and stunted. He considered himself better than most people and this was pretty obvious in the way he spoke to them.

When Lion's project failed and crashed to the ground, he moved onto another project with someone else for a few months, abandoning everyone with no recourse or closure. This is after having obtained a number of donors on Patreon, a few of which voiced their discontent to me personally. Lion promised to pay out an amount of this to pixel artists but as far as I'm concerned this never actually happened. There was some talk about servers but from what I'm aware he got a pretty healthy excess on his input. Let's bear in mind here, Lion doesn't actually really do anything except for micromanage and assign projects to himself which take up extraordinary amounts of time with little payoff. Before this project, and before SCP-13, he'd been kicked off as a "CO" (Communications Officer) I believe due to his poor community management and the fact he was constantly getting into disagreements and being generally just full of himself.

Personally, Lion tainted his own reputation through his absurd promiscuity, which was pushed way too far, and on practically everyone. He was part of a dodgy LGBT steam group which was mostly kids about 13 sending messages like "holy shit I want some big guy to fuck my ass until it's bleeding and ripped apart" and got extremely violent when this was brought up. His past escapades count against him, and he was mocked for his egotism by practically everyone he got into conversation with. I imagine this application has flown under the radar, but if he does get a position, people who know his name will definitely bring this up and we'll have a whole Feweh situation on Reddit, though less charitable and less dramatic.

Now. You might have read the paragraphs above this one and be wincing right now. But... I don't believe that our history defines who we will be forever. I can accept that people change, but I don't believe that Lion has had to the time to progress to that point yet. I believe that, given time, he could easily redeem himself and make up for the little disasters he has left behind, but I would be hesitant in throwing him up through the ranks. As negative as this post is, it is not a "DENY THIS INSTANTLY" call, or any call for you to take any action, for that matter. However, I would like everyone who votes on this app to consider the above in the context of this application, and to make a mental note when further progression is asked for. Remember that Narcissists can be very manipulative and mask their behaviour to get to where they want to be.

Read the app, consider it having read this, and then make your decision based on your best judgement. I'd suggest extensive trialling, no matter what your decision is. You're free to ignore my advice, I can't enforce my words here in any way, I just hope that you take everything here into account. Apologies for the lack of proof, but there's only an extent of effort I am willing to put into any matter regarding The Lion at this point. I'm just someone random on the internet, so take this with a pinch - okay a pile - of salt. I'll probably check back at some time to see how this goes out of personal interest, but I'm not going to respond any further if questioned. The evidence is out there, talk to people or look it up. I am absolutely FINISHED with this guy.

Edit: I proceeded to post some examples, it was removed by ThesoldierLLJK, who, curiously, is upvoting this after this whole dumpster fire of an app.

[The Lion]

I'll be going into above post. Not at length, but rather snippets, because after someone comes at me with that, some of which is entirely false, I'll be defending myself.

which range from sexually threatening comments to exerting the power and influence he had over others to intimidate and threaten them. This ranged from petty things like denying them access to the server/discord up to threatening kids (14 year olds and such) with egregious claims that he would be employing lawyers for absurd things.

Right, so, this snippet. Threatening comments? Are you sure you're not taking things out of context? I said a great deal of things, that I'll get into later on this snippet, and some of those things were actually jokes. Whether you perceived them as such or not, but I'd like concrete examples to see if I can remember it. I'd remember it if I made genuine threatening comments, such as the following:

I'm aware I threatened to involve lawyers at some point - again, a lot of people say a bunch of shit when placed under duress.

But what I can't find myself in is chidlish behavior by denying access to the server or Discord (with the Vice Host keeping tabs on that, and can in fact testify that I never did any of this), as well as sexual threats? I don't know where you're getting that from, but I never made sexually charged threats, unless - again - it was a joke. Perhaps it was in poor taste then, but I've never made genuine threats like that, because they are actionable.

Moreover, I never explicitly intimidated or threatened anyone. I'll agree I got a bit miffed at one project - which had removed all credit and was keeping the source closed (as I tried, but was instructed to keep opened). That's also where the lawyers stem from, being one of the stakeholders of that situation, amongst a whole slew of Baystation devs.

Moving on.

He repeatedly stifled communications between members of staff and the general community and drove a number of staff to even turn against him because of his game-playing.

Stifled communication? I encouraged it, between all staff, and every staff member had access to the same channels, with the exception of some off-limits one to developers for specific purposes, but I never stifled contact between members of staff. As far as the Community goes? I tried to instate a Community Manager to cross that bridge and divide between the Community and Staff. I was told that at the time it was too soon and nobody capable was within the staff team to take up such a large task. Don't make me out to never have made any effort to negatively affect my own project by stifling communication between staff or community, when I in fact advocated for it. Fact two you're either twisting or got wrong.

One of his first real assignments once the server was "up" was to give new meaning to the word nepotism. His ex-boyfriend/current lover became a Co-Host and generally bumbled around disrupting busy folks who had coding to do and doing some cringeworthy crap that soured the general public against him.

Another manufactured and wholly untrue fact. My ex-boyfriend or current lover? You mean Milkshakes? He was one of the most competent staff I know, but I guess that's up for interpretation, and I can wholly say RIGHT NOW that we have never been romantically involved. He was simply a friend I met from years ago, and who took my offer to become Vice Host for the server, given the amount of experience he accumulated on several servers.

It was up to a few members of the staff team to actually hold the project together while he inputted his own requests, like making "LION BARS" for dispensers or a "LION STATUE" which needed to be sprited and implemented in. These received a lot of backlash. There is a lot more to unpack here, but it devolves into petty insults from me at a certain point. Many of the staff team ghosted for a period of time before vanishing, some quit in pure frustration and others kicked off and just quit. He wanted to micromanage EVERYTHING, every single design choice, and had unrealistic ideas about progress and development, up until the point where he had to be confronted and told that he was pushing too hard and in the wrong direction.

It's true, I was involved in a lot of the development work, where I either gave my input or it was requested, but I always maintained that additions should be feasible from in-game perspective. Perhaps not enough attention was given to the actual design philosophy of individual additions, which then falls on me, but yes - I was the Host, and I was the project leader. Wouldn't you think someone with that task would stay out of the fray of development?

I agree the Lion bars and statue were absolutely too much. I added them harboring no ill intent or the so-called listed behavior of being egotistic or whatever, and simply meant to add some more flair to an otherwise empty lobby and for comic relief. Poorly received, lesson learned. I'll admit I pushed back on the initial issue, trying to explain that it was nothing more but to add flair and comic relief, but I eventually ended up removing them.

Lion eventually tainted the perception of the server from other servers by beginning to make threats and grave insults against hosts of other servers, went about pretty much everything in an unprofessional manner and even resorted to doing something as petty as "spying" by encouraging his team to find positions in other servers and gather information from them. His communication with these other hosts was often toxic and stunted. He considered himself better than most people and this was pretty obvious in the way he spoke to them.

This is actually the first point that might actually hold some weight. Though again, misrepresented.

I did ask some of my former staff members to gain staff positions elsewhere to find information that was of importance, such as whether or not the host of a separate server was actually upholding the TOS, that's all I was concerned about, since the source had yet to be published. I can ask Xales or MrStonedOne to testify on my behalf for this one, because I asked them to help me set this up. Perhaps it was in poor taste what I did, but I did it with the best intentions at heart, and also in keeping with the fact I had no way of contacting the hosts of the other server.

Better, though? Arguably. I have a particular way of talking to someone, sure, but I don't think that was me acting as if I was better than someone.

When Lion's project failed and crashed to the ground, he moved onto another project with someone else for a few months, abandoning everyone with no recourse or closure. This is after having obtained a number of donors on Patreon, a few of which voiced their discontent to me personally. Lion promised to pay out an amount of this to pixel artists but as far as I'm concerned this never actually happened. There was some talk about servers but from what I'm aware he got a pretty healthy excess on his input. Let's bear in mind here, Lion doesn't actually really do anything except for micromanage and assign projects to himself which take up extraordinary amounts of time with little payoff. Before this project, and before SCP-13, he'd been kicked off as a "CO" (Communications Officer) I believe due to his poor community management and the fact he was constantly getting into disagreements and being generally just full of himself.

The problem you're describing here is two-sided. I'll get into the first. You're right, I gained some excess from the Patreon, but that number never exceeded the $1,000 mark as some people love to theorize. I never made any promises to pay out the artists of the former project, because I'd have to pay the Programmers too, just to be entirely fair - which I consider myself to be. What I did offer was for all patrons of 3 months or longer to be credited in my new venture, which is nothing close to SS13, in-fact is a business that currently employs 18 members of staff, myself not counted. With that in mind, I offered to credit them and offer any release keys of a new release equivalent to the amount donated all-time, which was their option - they could save remaining credit for future games or use the keys to spread to their friends.

As far as my employment history with Northwood Studio's goes, the stories of that are twisted and differ whoever you ask. I was "fired" according to urban rumor spread by staff themselves, but I have several members of staff, former colleagues of mine, who can 100% verify that I left of own accord for valid reasons, and that I made every effort to make it work out. Those same colleagues now left for similar reasons of my own. This means that whoever your source might be, got their facts wrong or simply had asked the wrong individuals.

He was part of a dodgy LGBT steam group which was mostly kids about 13 sending messages like "holy shit I want some big guy to fuck my ass until it's bleeding and ripped apart" and got extremely violent when this was brought up.

Because is it anyone's business what I do on Steam? For the record, I never participated in any of these groups. I was invited to them years ago by some friends I don't think I have on my list anymore. But I never bother checking any groups other than those of use to me or those who are my own. I don't actively keep track of 68 groups, so you can't exactly fault me for hearing this for the first time. If you could specify the group, I'd leave it. I support the LGBTQ community on Steam and the internet as a whole, and that's why I joined them.



This is all I have to say on the matter in regards to this post. I'm going to say that the parts I didn't quote or address are so out of this world I don't think they warrant a response, but I'm more than willing to offer answers if there's any urgent questions remaining on these parts.

[Grimreaperx15]

I'll be honest, the excessive amount of drama around this post makes me extremely uneasy. I feel like some of these issues are much too recent to ignore, and I'd personally be much more comfortable with seeing how things develop in the future, considering the current circumstances.